Department of Health and Social Care

Intensive Care: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will review intensive care environments to identify (a) risk and (b) the potential ways in which greater scrutiny and oversight practices can be introduced.

Maria Caulfield: The Department has no current plans to review intensive care environments. Operational practices and the assessment of risk is the responsibility of local National Health Service trusts, with oversight from the health regulators, the Care Quality Commission.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Dangerous Dogs

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has met with the RSPCA to discuss the effectiveness of the Dangerous Dogs Act in 2023.

Trudy Harrison: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not met with the RSPCA to discuss the effectiveness of the Dangerous Dogs Act to date in 2023.

Dangerous Dogs

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Responsible Dog Ownership working group has held recent discussions on the American Bully XL breed.

Trudy Harrison: The Responsible Dog Ownership working group has not held recent discussions on the ‘American XL bully’ as this was outside the scope of its work. The Responsible Dog Ownership working group was tasked with considering improvements that could be made in relation to all breeds of dog, not specific individual breeds. Conclusions from this work are expected soon. These should address all aspects of tackling irresponsible dog ownership effectively, from prevention to robust, consistent enforcement, focusing on owners as well as on their dogs.

Sick Leave: Stress

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many total working days were staff absent due to work-related stress in (a) her Department, (b) the Environment Agency and (c) Natural England in each year from 2010 to 2023.

Rebecca Pow: Absence specifically attributed to work-related stress is not currently recorded via HR sickness absence systems. Work-related stress cases – with or without any absence from work – are encouraged to be reported via work-related injury, ill-health and incident reporting procedures, as a health and safety incident, like any other work-related harm.

House of Commons Commission

Legislation: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Julian Knight: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the Commission is considering new initiatives to increase public trust in the parliamentary legislative process.

Sir Charles Walker: The legislative programme, and its content, is the responsibility of the Government. A number of teams across the House Service, primarily the Chamber and Participation team and the Communications team, collectively provide a range of opportunities for the public to learn about the parliamentary legislative process. This includes information on the law-making process as part of public engagement events (such as community outreach sessions, teacher training, school visits to the Education Centre and tours of the Palace of Westminster) and as part of the House’s communications activity (including regular updates on legislation and procedural explainers on social media channels).The Commission has not recently discussed new initiatives to increase public trust in the parliamentary legislative process. However, the Administration Committee has recently finished an inquiry investigating how the House of Commons Administration communicates to the public. It will be reporting its findings to the Commission in the Autumn.